The economy is down, but at Southern California private schools the tuition is up. Rather than pull their children out of pricey schools where tuition and fees are approaching $20,000 a year, however, strapped parents are tightening their belts and turning to the financial aid office, school officials say. "We actually began to feel this last school year, when the stock market--the Nasdaq in particular--began to fall.

The economy is down, but at Southern California private schools the tuition is up. Rather than pull their children out of pricey schools where tuition and fees are approaching $20,000 a year, however, strapped parents are tightening their belts and turning to the financial aid office, school officials say. "We actually began to feel this last school year, when the stock market--the Nasdaq in particular--began to fall.

If there's one thing you don't expect to see on a quiet Friday in Malibu, it's a well-dressed rabbi with a 5-foot flamethrower. But this was no ordinary Friday. It was two days before the biggest Western-style kosher wingding in the history of the world, quite possibly, and Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz was at the Calamigos Ranch, propane torch in hand, to make sure all was kosher indeed. "Whatever they want torched, we'll torch," he said with a quiet chuckle.

Danny Hill's gratitude to his daughter's school is propelling him to the top of one of the country's highest mountains on a strenuous fund-raiser--and he is pulling three other fathers along. The 40-year-old Hill is the father of three daughters, including 8-year-old Talia, who suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hearing and speech problems as consequences of an infection she contracted soon after she and her twin sister were born three months prematurely.

Meat cases in New York, Chicago, Detroit had been picked clean as bone. And with a sympathetic shrug, Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz explained that he had cornered the market on kosher ribs. One thousand pounds of the ribs--about the total amount available domestically on any given day--along with equal amounts of kosher chicken and kosher hot dogs went up in smoke Sunday at what was billed as the world's largest kosher barbecue.

At Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, kids start on computers in pre-kindergarten. In the first and second grades, they're putting together research projects, working with microscopes in laboratories and learning about scientific principles. Nestled in a rustic area near the foot of the Santa Susana Mountains, the school has no more than about two dozen students per class, each with one teacher and an aide.

The private Viewpoint School in Calabasas has received a $25,000 grant to enhance its technology program, school administrators said. The grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation in Providence, R.I., will be used to upgrade computer equipment in science laboratories for junior high and high school students, administrators said. Specifically, it will be used to purchase microcomputer-based laboratories, calculator-based laboratories and software that simulates experiments.

Lawndale school officials are planning to go to Superior Court today to evict a private school from one of the district's old elementary school buildings. School Supt. Joseph Condon said the Masada School for juvenile wards of the county court system owes the school district $77,000, including $72,000 for all of this year's rent and $5,000 from last year. The school district sent a notice to the Masada School in January that their one-year lease, which expired June 30, would not be renewed.

A Superior Court judge has temporarily barred the Los Angeles Unified School District from opposing a school voucher initiative being proposed for the November ballot. Judge Robert O'Brien's temporary restraining order, issued Friday, prohibits the use of district money and equipment to advance opinions on the proposed initiative, and forbids the district to rebroadcast a March 2 meeting in which school board members approved a resolution opposing it.

Claremont High School is a minimalist private school. There's no cafeteria, no field for its sports teams to practice on. Mismatched second-hand furniture fills its classrooms. The annual $8,000 tuition isn't invested into glamorizing the 22-year-old school, centered in an industrial park, Instead, parents and administrators said, it pays for small class sizes of about 12 pupils per teacher and a solid college prep program. Virtually every Claremont senior goes on to college.

Superior Court Judge Cary Nishimoto took under consideration Wednesday a request to evict a private school from an old elementary school building in Lawndale. The judge has 90 days to make a decision. Lawndale school officials are trying to evict Masada School, a nonprofit corporation that Los Angeles County contracts with to educate juvenile wards of the court. It operates at a former elementary school on Grevillea Avenue.

Lawndale school officials are planning to go to Superior Court today to evict a private school from one of the district's old elementary school buildings. School Supt. Joseph Condon said the Masada School for juvenile wards of the county court system owes the school district $77,000, including $72,000 for all of this year's rent and $5,000 from last year. The school district sent a notice to the Masada School in January that their one-year lease, which expired June 30, would not be renewed.

Claremont High School is a minimalist private school. There's no cafeteria, no field for its sports teams to practice on. Mismatched second-hand furniture fills its classrooms. The annual $8,000 tuition isn't invested into glamorizing the 22-year-old school, centered in an industrial park, Instead, parents and administrators said, it pays for small class sizes of about 12 pupils per teacher and a solid college prep program. Virtually every Claremont senior goes on to college.

The private Viewpoint School in Calabasas has received a $25,000 grant to enhance its technology program, school administrators said. The grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation in Providence, R.I., will be used to upgrade computer equipment in science laboratories for junior high and high school students, administrators said. Specifically, it will be used to purchase microcomputer-based laboratories, calculator-based laboratories and software that simulates experiments.

Meat cases in New York, Chicago, Detroit had been picked clean as bone. And with a sympathetic shrug, Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz explained that he had cornered the market on kosher ribs. One thousand pounds of the ribs--about the total amount available domestically on any given day--along with equal amounts of kosher chicken and kosher hot dogs went up in smoke Sunday at what was billed as the world's largest kosher barbecue.

If there's one thing you don't expect to see on a quiet Friday in Malibu, it's a well-dressed rabbi with a 5-foot flamethrower. But this was no ordinary Friday. It was two days before the biggest Western-style kosher wingding in the history of the world, quite possibly, and Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz was at the Calamigos Ranch, propane torch in hand, to make sure all was kosher indeed. "Whatever they want torched, we'll torch," he said with a quiet chuckle.

With the fog-shrouded hills of the Cleveland National Forest behind him, Father Michael Harris, founding principal of Santa Margarita Catholic High School, strode through the colonnades and courtyards of the campus, pointing out one reason after another why the school is considered a state-of-the art education showcase.

At American universities, this time of year is usually one of self-congratulation. Graduates celebrate their farewells to alma mater. Faculty eagerly approach summer research trips. Administrators plan for bigger and better programs in the fall. Yet this spring brings a different mood to many of the nation's private universities. Campus presidents are looking to cut costs, limit tuition increases and stop expansions. Faculty and staff are worried about possible layoffs and enrollment declines.

Because of unresolved paperwork with two county departments, Principal Joshua Smith was forced to close the Word of God Alternative School's first through 12th grades three weeks ago. Only the preschool was in session last week at the Western Avenue campus, and its fate remains uncertain. "If I can get a minimum of $10,000 to make my payroll, I can keep on," Smith said last week.

Hundreds of thousands of French parents, teachers and students marched down a cold, rainy boulevard in Paris on Sunday, staging the largest political demonstration in nearly a decade to protest attempts by the conservative government to increase state funding for private schools. The procession was the first significant show of strength for the leftist opposition in France since it was ousted by conservatives in decisive elections last April.